Lakers get a gritty win over the Hornets, finishing 4–3 in their seven-game road trip.
The Lakers finish 4–3 in their seven-game road trip after a much-needed win over the Charlotte Hornets winning 103–93. With tonight’s win over the Hornets, the Lakers season record moves to 34–21 keeping them in 5th place in the Western Conference. The Lakers nearly blew tonight’s game after surrendering a huge lead in the final 3 minutes, turning the game around into a one-point lead before a clutch three from Alex Caruso to put an exclamation on the game.
The Lakers were able to bounce back from a season-high 24 turnovers in their loss to the New Knicks finishing with only 11 turnovers in tonight’s much-needed win of the road trip. The Lakers finished with their season-best from the free-throw line shooting 94.4% going 17 for 18 from the line. From the field, the Lakers finished 34 for 82 (41.5%) and 36.4% from the three-point arc going 16 for 44. One area the Lakers have been great this season is scoring on the fast break, but ever since the loss of LeBron James to a high ankle sprain that area for this team has been almost nonexistent. Tonight the Lakers had a season-low 2 points come off the fast break points showing how much of an impact James brings to the Lakers on the fast break.
After having a not-so-great performance scoring 14 points on 13 shot attempts in yesterday’s loss to the Knicks, Kyle Kuzma answered back huge for the Lakers tonight. Despite dealing with cramps all game Kuzma was still able to deal in the Lakers win, scoring game-high 24 points on 7 of 18 (38.8%) shooting from the field in his 34 minutes of action. Kuzma had a ferocious dunk over Hornets center Bismack Biyombo late in the second quarter that could be the best dunk of the season by any Laker.
The second-leading scorer for the Lakers in tonight’s win was the quarterback of their offense Dennis Schröder. In 36 minutes, Schröder finished with 2 steals, 4 rebounds, 6 assists, and 19 points on 8 of 19 (42.1%) total from the field and 3 of 7 from the perimeter. After saying: “We all got to do better.” After yesterday’s loss to the Knicks, Schröder and the Lakers redeemed themselves by getting a needed win over a short-handed Hornets team.
Andre Drummond has been trying to get familiar with the Lakers system since his implementation into the lineup as the Lakers head coach Frank Vogel said “We have to do it as fast as possible, It’s not going to be perfect.” In tonight’s win, Drummond finished with 12 rebounds and 4 points on 2 of 7 (28.5%) shooting from the field in his 24 minutes of action.
The Lakers bench was able to bounce back after a 29 point performance in the loss to the Knicks with a 39 point showing in tonight’s win. Alex Caruso led the way for the bench with 13 points on 3 of 5 (60%) shooting from the three-point arc and 4 for 6 (66.6%) from the field. In his 24 minutes of action, Caruso finished with a game-high 21 plus/minus while also adding 6 assists in his box score. Caruso was able to top his performance with a clutch three in the final minute of the game. In the month of April (7 games) Caruso is shooting 63.1% from three, going 12 of 19 in that span from the perimeter, showing how consistent he has been from the arc for this team.
The Lakers will now travel back home this Thursday to face the Boston Celtics in a historic matchup in front of fans for the first time in over a year. The Celtics are currently 28–26 on the season and will look to spoil the Lakers home reunion in front of the fans to beat the defending champs.